Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 15 of 38

Thread: Merkel faces the tricky task of forming the next German government

  1. #1 | Top
    Join Date
    May 2012
    Location
    life
    Posts
    52,794
    Thanks
    13,341
    Thanked 22,579 Times in 15,814 Posts
    Groans
    249
    Groaned 1,951 Times in 1,862 Posts

    Default Merkel faces the tricky task of forming the next German government

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel, victorious in national elections but wounded by a fall in support for her party and a sharp rise for the far right, faced the complex task Monday of cobbling together a government for her fourth and final term.

    The Sunday vote left Merkel’s center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) well ahead of all other parties in the race for the German Parliament, known as the Bundestag.

    But the party’s support fell well short of the mark it set four years ago, and her coalition partner, the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), faced a similarly steep decline.

    The SPD immediately announced it would not join Merkel for another term, leaving her with just one functional option for forming a new government: a never-before-tried three-way coalition among her conservatives, the socially liberal and pro-business Free Democrats and the Green Party.

    With weeks of tough negotiations likely to come, Merkel must also reckon with the dramatic gains of the far-right, anti-Islam AfD, which placed third with 12.6 percent of the vote and is set to become the first far-right party in the Bundestag in more than half a century. The party’s vote total was nearly triple its 2013 result, and it matches the outer limit of its support in pre-election polls

    The groundswell of support upended any notion that Europe’s largest economy and most important geo*political player is immune to the populist currents roiling other democracies across the West. It also revealed the depths of lingering resentment toward Merkel’s 2015 decision to welcome more than a million asylum seekers amid the European refugee crisis.

    Taken together, the outcome is likely to complicate Merkel’s ambitions for her final term, while giving the bombastic AfD a prominent platform to influence politics in a country where civility and consensus have long been prized.

    “It’s a huge change in the political landscape,” said Hans Kundnani, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund. “It will change the nature of debate in the Bundestag.”

    True to its combative reputation, the party wasted no time in vowing to use its voice in the Bundestag, the larger house in Parliament, to cause trouble for the government — including by investigating Merkel’s refugee-related decision-making

    But the party will have to overcome fierce internal divisions if it wants to make good on its pledge. Those were laid bare Monday morning when one of the party’s most visible personalities, co-chairwoman Frauke Petry, announced she would not be joining the AfD’s caucus in Parliament. She abruptly left a press conference with other AfD members Monday without taking questions.

    Despite the AfD’s gains, Sunday’s results represented at least a partial affirmation of Merkel’s emphasis on Germany’s stability and economic prosperity at a time of upheaval elsewhere around the globe. They clear the way for her to extend her 12-year stewardship to 16, which would tie the record for postwar Germany.

    Merkel’s CDU, along with its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, won 33 percent — down several points from what most pre-election polls had predicted, and 8.5 points lower than its result in 2013. The vote share was among the lowest ever for the party, which has governed Germany for most of the nation’s postwar history.

    While promising to remain as chancellor, Merkel also acknowledged the “strong challenge” from the AfD and its voters.

    “We want to win them back,” she said. “We want to address their fears and concerns.”

    The SPD placed a distant second with 20.5 percent of the vote, a dismal result for Merkel’s coalition partner of the past four years.

    “Taking in so many refugees split the nation, that has become clear,” SPD leader Martin Schulz told supporters. “We didn’t manage to convince a segment of our society that our country is strong enough to handle the task.”

    Schulz said the party would not join another government, and would instead go into opposition to offer voters a clear alternative to the CDU for the next election.

    The decision leaves Merkel to try to forge a so-called Jamaica coalition, a reference to the colors of the three parties that would take part: Merkel’s CDU, the Free Democrats and the Greens.

  2. The Following User Groans At anatta For This Awful Post:

    FUCK THE POLICE (09-25-2017)

  3. #2 | Top
    Join Date
    May 2012
    Location
    life
    Posts
    52,794
    Thanks
    13,341
    Thanked 22,579 Times in 15,814 Posts
    Groans
    249
    Groaned 1,951 Times in 1,862 Posts

    Default

    But that could be a tricky arrangement given the two junior parties’ differences on key economic and foreign policies. The Greens, in particular, said Sunday that they would put strict conditions on their participation.

    “We don’t want to govern just to govern,” said Cem Özdemir, co-leader of the Greens.

    Kundnani said the Greens — who have already had a run in government with the Social Democrats — would be reluctant to do a deal that could force them to sacrifice core principles.

    “This is going to be a very right-wing government one way or another,”
    he said.

    Still, there will be significant pressure on the parties to strike a deal. Without one, Germany could be forced to hold new elections, an outcome that the mainstream parties fear would only further strengthen the AfD.

    Sunday’s vote continues a *Europe-wide trend toward fragmentation, as the country’s two biggest establishment parties lost support and the smaller parties gained. The Bundestag will now be crowded with six parties that span the ideological spectrum from far left to far right.

    The result follows a relatively low-key campaign in which the major parties largely ducked the chance to challenge Merkel. Despite the lack of pre-election intrigue, turnout was higher than usual, with over three-quarters of Germany’s 61 million voters casting ballots from the Baltic Sea to the Alps.

    Exit polls showed that many of the AfD’s voters were casting ballots for the first time, while supporters of other parties said they showed up to try to block the party.

    “We have to counter the right-wing people,” said Abdessamad Mendoui, a 75-year-old who immigrated to Germany 55 years ago from Morocco, and who walked slowly on Sunday to his polling place in the western city of Frankfurt.

    To Merkel’s backers, the election was a chance to endorse German stability at a historically fraught time.

    “It doesn’t look good in the world. If you listen to that guy in America and also in the East with his atomic weapons, you get scared,” said Elida Baller, 84, referring to President Trump and Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader.

    But the AfD’s support was higher than many Germans had thought possible in a country where the memory of extreme-right-wing government is a source of profound national shame.

    “For me, the AfD is a Nazi party,” Hannelore Weimann, 81, said after voting in Berlin. “I experienced World War II and I have seen the history, and I don’t understand how people can vote for a party like this.”

    The party was founded in 2013 in protest over European bailouts for Greece, and that year it barely missed the 5 percent cutoff for making it into the Bundestag.

    But its popularity has surged on the back of resistance to Merkel’s decision in 2015 to open the country’s borders to hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers fleeing war, oppression and extreme poverty.

    The party was especially strong in the former East Germany, winning 23 percent there — compared with just 11 percent in the west.

    Jens Töpfer, 36, an engineer who cast one of his two ballots Sunday for the AfD, said he is afraid that Germany is being overrun by refugees. And that could bring dire consequences for the next generation, he said, pointing to his 2-year-old son.

    “Refugees have a different culture that doesn’t fit in here,” he said. “They should go back where they came from and fight for their freedom and reconstruction.”

    Germany’s other major parties were united in speaking out against the AfD, both before and after the vote. Schulz called the far-right party “the gravediggers of democracy.”
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...=.d2e60131d25e

  4. The Following User Groans At anatta For This Awful Post:

    FUCK THE POLICE (09-25-2017)

  5. #3 | Top
    Join Date
    Jul 2017
    Posts
    20,584
    Thanks
    5,584
    Thanked 2,435 Times in 2,073 Posts
    Groans
    0
    Groaned 172 Times in 170 Posts

    Default

    Russian meddling?

  6. #4 | Top
    Join Date
    May 2012
    Location
    life
    Posts
    52,794
    Thanks
    13,341
    Thanked 22,579 Times in 15,814 Posts
    Groans
    249
    Groaned 1,951 Times in 1,862 Posts

    Default

    Germany is trending right. Merkels immigration open borders was a bad mistake all the way around

  7. The Following User Groans At anatta For This Awful Post:

    FUCK THE POLICE (09-25-2017)

  8. #5 | Top
    Join Date
    Jul 2017
    Posts
    20,584
    Thanks
    5,584
    Thanked 2,435 Times in 2,073 Posts
    Groans
    0
    Groaned 172 Times in 170 Posts

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by anatta View Post
    Germany is trending right. Merkels immigration open borders was a bad mistake all the way around
    You are correct, but Germany didn't trend right far enough.

    Liberals will never admit that the jihadi invasion is part and parcel of the immigration/"refugee" Trojan horse.

    In Sweden they know they goofed but they are suppressing crime reports to hide the truth about "refugees".

    Thank God we have Trump to keep these animals out.

  9. #6 | Top
    Join Date
    May 2012
    Location
    life
    Posts
    52,794
    Thanks
    13,341
    Thanked 22,579 Times in 15,814 Posts
    Groans
    249
    Groaned 1,951 Times in 1,862 Posts

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by God bless America View Post
    You are correct, but Germany didn't trend right far enough.

    Liberals will never admit that the jihadi invasion is part and parcel of the immigration/"refugee" Trojan horse.

    In Sweden they know they goofed but they are suppressing crime reports to hide the truth about "refugees".

    Thank God we have Trump to keep these animals out.
    this is a very liberal country -western Europe and all that/ it's amazing how far right it's drifting.
    It's all due to open borders..

    It's a sticky wickett to form a coalition

  10. The Following User Groans At anatta For This Awful Post:

    FUCK THE POLICE (09-25-2017)

  11. #7 | Top
    Join Date
    Jul 2017
    Posts
    20,584
    Thanks
    5,584
    Thanked 2,435 Times in 2,073 Posts
    Groans
    0
    Groaned 172 Times in 170 Posts

    Default

    I keep seeing the evidence that open borders don't work.

    Europe is almost overrun with "migrants".

    I think the backlash is coming, and the only reason it hasn't yet is that the jihadists and their chorus of useful idiots beat the rayciss drum incessantly.

    Incessant droning eventually gets ignored.

  12. #8 | Top
    Join Date
    May 2012
    Location
    life
    Posts
    52,794
    Thanks
    13,341
    Thanked 22,579 Times in 15,814 Posts
    Groans
    249
    Groaned 1,951 Times in 1,862 Posts

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by God bless America View Post
    I keep seeing the evidence that open borders don't work.

    Europe is almost overrun with "migrants".

    I think the backlash is coming, and the only reason it hasn't yet is that the jihadists and their chorus of useful idiots beat the rayciss drum incessantly.

    Incessant droning eventually gets ignored.
    they are mostly a drain on resources- some assimilate, many do not.
    European countries used to have an individual flavor/character/history/culture -it's what makes Europe such an interesting continent

    The EU and globalist have damaged that, and the nativists want it back

  13. The Following User Groans At anatta For This Awful Post:

    FUCK THE POLICE (09-25-2017)

  14. #9 | Top
    Join Date
    Jul 2017
    Posts
    20,584
    Thanks
    5,584
    Thanked 2,435 Times in 2,073 Posts
    Groans
    0
    Groaned 172 Times in 170 Posts

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by anatta View Post
    they are mostly a drain on resources- some assimilate, many do not.
    European countries used to have an individual flavor/character/history/culture -it's what makes Europe such an interesting continent. The EU and globalist have damaged that, and the nativists want it back

    According to Japanese Ministry of Justice data, Japan accepted just 11 asylum seekers out of a record 5,000 applications, although Japanese officials say most of the asylum applicants were from other Asian countries and were already living in Japan.

    I wonder if the globalist cheerleaders for unrestricted jihadi migration are calling Japan rayciss.

  15. #10 | Top
    Join Date
    Nov 2016
    Posts
    41,961
    Thanks
    3
    Thanked 22,041 Times in 13,848 Posts
    Groans
    0
    Groaned 3,042 Times in 2,838 Posts

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by God bless America View Post
    According to Japanese Ministry of Justice data, Japan accepted just 11 asylum seekers out of a record 5,000 applications, although Japanese officials say most of the asylum applicants were from other Asian countries and were already living in Japan.

    I wonder if the globalist cheerleaders for unrestricted jihadi migration are calling Japan rayciss.
    Last I recall, Japan isn't like neighbors of the Middle East, nor have they ever been a heterogeneous nation, it is an island you now, one half way across the world with a culture unlike anything close to anything found in the Middle East

  16. The Following User Groans At archives For This Awful Post:

    FUCK THE POLICE (09-25-2017)

  17. #11 | Top
    Join Date
    Jul 2017
    Posts
    20,584
    Thanks
    5,584
    Thanked 2,435 Times in 2,073 Posts
    Groans
    0
    Groaned 172 Times in 170 Posts

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by anchovies View Post
    Last I recall, Japan isn't like neighbors of the Middle East, nor have they ever been a heterogeneous nation, it is an island you now, one half way across the world with a culture unlike anything close to anything found in the Middle East
    Isn't Britain an island that isn't neighbors with the Middle East - you know, with a culture unlike anything in the Middle East - at least, it used to be?

  18. #12 | Top
    Join Date
    Jul 2017
    Posts
    43,479
    Thanks
    12,574
    Thanked 23,756 Times in 16,563 Posts
    Groans
    249
    Groaned 1,622 Times in 1,532 Posts

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by archives View Post
    Last I recall, Japan isn't like neighbors of the Middle East, nor have they ever been a heterogeneous nation, it is an island you now, one half way across the world with a culture unlike anything close to anything found in the Middle East
    Japan isn't comparable -agreed.
    But look more to eastern Europe where the immigrants were not allowed to stop ;they were hustled away to western Europe

  19. The Following User Groans At dukkha For This Awful Post:

    FUCK THE POLICE (09-25-2017)

  20. #13 | Top
    Join Date
    Mar 2016
    Posts
    15,536
    Thanks
    1,378
    Thanked 3,981 Times in 3,024 Posts
    Groans
    130
    Groaned 841 Times in 781 Posts

    Default

    afd got 11% right? This is surprising i thought they wouldnt get anywhere near 10.
    is on twitter @realtsuke

    https://tsukesthoughts.wordpress.com/

  21. The Following User Groans At tsuke For This Awful Post:

    FUCK THE POLICE (09-25-2017)

  22. #14 | Top
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Posts
    108,120
    Thanks
    60,501
    Thanked 35,051 Times in 26,519 Posts
    Groans
    47,393
    Groaned 4,742 Times in 4,521 Posts
    Blog Entries
    61

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by tsuke View Post
    afd got 11% right? This is surprising i thought they wouldnt get anywhere near 10.
    Wrong, they actually got 13.5% of the vote.

  23. The Following User Groans At cancel2 2022 For This Awful Post:

    FUCK THE POLICE (09-25-2017)

  24. The Following User Says Thank You to cancel2 2022 For This Post:

    tsuke (09-25-2017)

  25. #15 | Top
    Join Date
    Jul 2006
    Posts
    61,320
    Thanks
    7,144
    Thanked 8,821 Times in 6,166 Posts
    Groans
    5,805
    Groaned 1,532 Times in 1,444 Posts
    Blog Entries
    3

    Default

    Fuck America. Fuck the virus of nationalism that is destroying the west. Afd should be banned and it's leaders executed in a second Nuremberg trial.
    "Do not think that I came to bring peace... I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." - Matthew 10:34

  26. The Following User Groans At FUCK THE POLICE For This Awful Post:

    tsuke (09-25-2017)

Similar Threads

  1. Witch hunt tricky dicky rumpf
    By Bill in forum Current Events Forum
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 03-31-2017, 10:04 AM
  2. Replies: 2
    Last Post: 12-20-2016, 05:22 PM
  3. Replies: 7
    Last Post: 06-30-2016, 04:19 PM
  4. Two more right wing blowhards taken to task
    By Taichiliberal in forum General Politics Forum
    Replies: 18
    Last Post: 04-09-2014, 03:54 PM
  5. Replies: 3
    Last Post: 10-23-2013, 10:20 AM

Bookmarks

Posting Rules

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •